Date of Award

6-1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2026

Department

Computer Science and Engineering

First Advisor

Krishna Ramamoorthy

Abstract

On college campuses, the lack of short-range delivery options creates frequent distractions and interruptions, reducing productivity and convenience for students and faculty. To address this problem, SCU2U was developed as a low-cost autonomous food delivery rover designed to provide sustainable on-campus solution. The system utilizes a client-server network architecture that enables remote processing and monitoring over a campus Wi-Fi network.

The rover uses a 2D LiDAR sensor to scan its environment and utilizes SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) to build and localize with a reference map of its environment. Autonomous navigation is implemented using ROS2 and the Nav2 framework, which combines LiDAR-based localization, obstacle detection, and path planning to enable real-time navigation. The A* algorithm is used to compute efficient routes while dynamically avoiding obstacles encountered during operation.

The final design incorporates a commercial rover chassis with custom 3D-printed components to satisfy payload requirements while maintaining a low cost. Testing in the campus environment demonstrated the system’s ability to autonomously navigate mapped environments and complete delivery tasks with minimal human intervention. The complete system successfully demonstrated autonomous campus delivery capabilities, offering a scalable and costeffective alternative at a fraction of the cost of commercial delivery robots that typically cost tens of thousands of dollars. The project highlights the feasibility of affordable robotic solutions to improve convenience and productivity on college campuses.

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